Space Oddity: Episode I
by Observer123
Summary: A new show about space travel has emerged and Dudley is the perfect fit, but then the show gets off-script and Dudley gets stuck in space. Will he find his way back home?
1. Hyperspace

"I´m so far away from home… Maybe further than every other one before. I saw the Sun, Mars even Pluto… this little wannabe planet. But what I can´t see right now is earth, home. It´s so far away… I´m missing home so much.

The blue oceans, the green willows and even the dark and grey cities. But it was my dream to be here… And it seems like I´m paying the price for it right now. Dammit. I just wish it wouldn´t be that high. I wish…"

"Commander Puppy, this is mission control. Do you read me? OVER."  
Dudley pushed the little green button under the microphone to activate it. "Yes I do, mission control. OVER."

"Thank god! We thought we lost contact completely! Transmit your telemetry data to us and define your status. OVER."  
Tired typed Dudley the command for the telemetry transmission into communication module and explained mission control in every detail what have happened since he lost contact to them.

After he confirmed his massage with OVER and let go the button no one answered for a long time. Time in which Dudley used to remember how that all begun.

* * *

10 months earlier. Dudley, the white canine and T.U.F.F. agent, sat with a cup of coffee in the apartment of Kitty Katswell´s. She was a tan cat girl that wasn´t even Dudley´s partner at T.U.F.F., she also has been his girlfriend since two years. A fact which he highly appreciated.

It was very early in the morning, almost still night, so not the usual time when someone would get up. But Dudley had a good reason to be awake. It was the 25th of October and the night was clear and cold, perfect conditions to watch the sky from the balcony of Kitty´s apartment.

And tonight was also a special night, too. Halley´s comet was passing the earth´s orbit again and this was something Dudley definitely wanted to see. Even if this comet passing the earth´s orbit every 20 years it´s just every 75 years so close that you can see it with your own eyes.

So if you´re not Methuselah you will probably see it just once in your lifetime… And if you´re not so lucky you´ll maybe never see it.  
Dudley tiptoed towards the balcony door and opened it quietly. He stepped out into the cold night air and breathed it in.

"Excellent." He remarked as he checked the sky for clouds which were nonexistent. Also the switched off street lamps made it considerably easier to watch the stars. The city council has decided to turn off all lights for the moment when the comet was expected. It was mainly Keswick´s idea.

A year ago Keswick has been elected after a violent election campaign into the city council and since then he had carte blanche about everything the council did. He maybe was a small stammering spectacled scientist but he had the guts and the voice to assert himself.

Excited scanned Dudley´s eyes the sky for the comet. Here and there he stopped on some particularly good looking star formations that shined in all kinds of colors.

"Dudley?" a voice from behind him ripped him out of his focus. It was Kitty who stood in the balcony doorframe rubbing her eyes.  
"Hey Kitty, changed your mind?"

"No, the noise you were making woke me up."  
"You and your sensitive hearing." In this case sensitive was even understated. Kitty could hear a pin falling down in the heavy noise of a nightclub. You could whisper while a bomb beside her would explode and she would understand it.

Dudley sometimes thought that she could hear so good that she was able to eavesdrop his thoughts. Nonsense of course, Kitty just knew him good enough by now to know what he thought. But it was sometimes a little creepy.

"Does it help if I tell you that I really tried to be as silent as even possible?"  
"Maybe, if you can give me the last 40 minutes of sleep back."  
"No I can´t but maybe I can fill the next minutes with a unique memory. Look up!" Dudley pointed at the sky where finally the comet had appeared.

Like a blue-white sparkling diamond rose the colossus made from ice and dust on the horizon. It´s tail left a little white scar on the face of the night-sky which was immediately healed by the darkness of space. A beautiful sight. Kitty and Dudley watched the comet on his way for almost an hour until Kitty said. "Okay… Now I have to say thanks for waking me up."

The next morning wasn´t far away and the two stood tired but happy in the T.U.F.F. office where they listened to the chief´s morning speech. "Last item of agenda." He announced after he has listed over sixty other points.

"We´re testing a new kind of T.U.F.F. single person shuttle soon… Thanks to our budget shortenings, and of course of the budgetary consolidation, we had to search for a sponsor who helped us handling the enormous costs of a space-travel program. I now pass the microphone to Wolf Spitzer from KPET news."

Kitty and Dudley exchanged confused glares. A news channel had enough money to sponsor a space travel program? Even if KPET was the most popular T.V. channel in Petropolis they couldn´t imagine that they were able to raise enough money.

"Hello everybody!" called Spitzer with his sovereign way in the micro. "I proudly present you today KPET´s latest project. Hyperspace! We bring space travelling to the next level. An interactive space traveling experience for the viewers. They can vote who will be on the spaceship. They will decide which route the ship will take… I could go on with this but I think you got my point."

Kitty raised her arm to ask a question. "So you´re want to produce the first space big brother reality T.V. shit show?"  
"That is summarizing it pretty good." Spitzer cleared his throat and averted from Kitty back to the audience. "Well, if anyone is interested in being a star between real stars, yeah I invented this, just sign up in the list on the noticeboard. Thank you."

Under the noise of the applauding audience Spitzer left the office. Kitty could just nod about this whole thing. "Which shameless idiot would want to get involved into that? I mean you have to be really stupid to sell your soul to KPET, right Dudley? … Dudley?!"

Kitty gazed around, Dudley was gone. "Oh great… it´s of course my idiot!" With her hand pinned on her forehead by the shame she just felt about Dudley´s decision she walked towards noticeboard.  
Dudley was meanwhile already a step ahead. He was the first one on the list and had left an untidy signature on the white empty list.

Then he ran straight to Keswick´s lab. Keswick was in charge for the old T.U.F.F. shuttle so he definitely had a hand in building the new shuttle. Dudley hoped that he could derive a benefit out of any information Keswick could give him.

"Hey Keswick." He panted as he built himself up in front of Keswick.  
"Oh, good morning Agent P..P..Puppy. What can I do for you?"  
"Easy. Tell me everything about the new shuttle."

Keswick was first surprised but then he shined. Dudley really wanted him to give a talk about a scientific topic. You hadn´t have to say that to him twice.

"I have no p..p..presentation ready… Ah, what am I talking of course I have." Keswick clapped his hands twice and all lights in the room went off. The total darkness was lighted by the collimated ray of the projector which hung from the ceiling like a spider.

"Well, what can I say about the X-prime?" Keswick clapped his hands again and a picture of the new shuttle was thrown at the wall. The spaceship looked like an arrowhead. It was just one big piece except the three big main engines that overhang the back part of the ship. "She is…"  
"She?"

"Yes D..D..Dudley, she. She is a lady! Well, equipped with a new k..k..kind of SSME, before you ask that means space shuttle main engine, that p..p..provides the lady with thrust of 25,000 kilo Newton. That means we can waive the SRB. By the way, SRBs are solid rocket boosters. The two s..s..smaller rockets which always fall away when the old shuttle left the atmosphere."

Keswick clapped his hands again and a blueprint of something that looked like a parabolic antenna flashed up on the wall.

"This is the KCom-8. Or how I call it, the revolution of interstellar c..c..communication. Developed by me by the way. This w..w..wonderful device allows you to establish a constant hyperspace communication between you and the one you want to talk to.  
The c..c..carrier signal moves through the 4-dimesional-Hyperspace. So a new coordinate adds to our Cartesian coordinate system. It´s no longer X, Y, Z it´s now X, Y, Z and T. And when we c..c..choose T right we… "

Keswick stopped his remarks because Dudley look at him in a way which meant that his brain has already shut down. So instead of continue talking he clapped his hands again. Again a blueprint was projected on the wall but Dudley knew this time nothing with what he could compare it.

"Here you see the reason why someone gets send up there at all. The Möbius Mk II. A completely new drive System. Developed by Doctor Johann Willhelm Möbius who isn´t just a genius but also my former Professor."

"I thought we just wanted to test the new shuttle?" interjected Dudley.  
"Also that, but the main r..r..reason is the Möbius Mk II. If it works we are maybe able to travel with the speed of light… or even faster." Keswick paused his speech because he waited for an amazed loud of Dudley. But nothing came.

Dudley wasn´t so into science that he could understand the implications of this invention. "Well I expected more enthusiasm...But, why do y..y..you even ask me about all of this?"  
"I sign up on the list and I want be the one sitting in that shuttle. So I thought I should get to know... the lady."

"Huh." Meant Keswick pensively.  
"Huh?"  
"Yes, huh. Usually I would be in a..a..agreement with your idea. But with the T.V. on your neck, which is even a great b..b..beauty spot in this all… I don´t know if I could s..s..sell my soul to the T.V. … I just hope that you really want that." Explained Keswick to him.

"It´s somehow a dream of me to explore space. And I can feel how this dream becomes real." Dudley smiled and looked heroically towards the ceiling.  
Kitty finally followed all of Dudley´s steps and arrived in the lab seeing her boyfriend in this pseudo cool position.

The hand which she let had sunk down by now she smacked against her forehead again.  
"This guy, my guy, wants to do a highly complicated single space mission… Wonderful. Just wonderful!"

**-Well, that was the pilot-chapter. I´m planning to make this to a bigger story. I´m also trying to publish chapters of this story continuously... even if I´m not sure about the frequency. What do you think? Just write it into the reviews. And Thanks for reading :D-  
**

**-By the way, the next time Halley´s comet will appear is 2061… So, very soon ;D-**


	2. Turn on the water

"Oh f*ck…" exclaimed the voice from the speaker.  
"That describes my current situation pretty well. OVER." Replied Dudley laughing bitterly.  
"Uhm… we thinking of a solution of your problem but… Well to be honest, we have no idea. We were never confronted with such situation or a situation that´s similar to that. OVER"

"I can imagine that. I´m a bit desperate right now so any suggestion would be welcome. OVER"  
"We should begin with that that you give us visual contact to the anomaly. We need to know what we´re dealing with. OVER"

"Just a second." Dudley grabbed the little camera device with that he usually documented his whole day for the audience that watched this grotesque T.V. show he was part of. He regretted his choice to participate in that show now. With a light jump he pushed himself away from his seat and hovered slowly to one window of the shuttle.

For a minute he filmed the thing that dragged his shuttle towards it, the black spot that absorbed all the light around it, until he flew back to his seat. In no time at all he connected the camera with the airborne computer and sent the data back to earth. Silence was the answer he received first.

But after a few seconds he could hear the amazed exclamations from the scientist and engineers out of which mission control consists. They have seen such thing just on pictures of a telescope. But never taped with a camera.  
"I.. I´ve never seen something like that before, Commander… Unbelievable!" stammered mission control. "I mean we knew that singularities are existing but… we never seen one from so close. From a scientific point of view that´s an unbelievable discovery… Oh I know how that sounds… Anyway, I don´t think there is anything that we could do for you. OVER."

"I think we both know what you could do for me… OVER"  
"I don´t… oh" said mission control suddenly realizing. "We´ll call them all. How long do you still have?"  
"I have enough fuel for 60 minutes."  
"I´ll tell them they should hurry. I´m sorry Commander."

* * *

9 months earlier  
Up and down. Again and again. Push-up after push-up. Dudley trained for a whole month now. Push-ups, knee bends, stamina training and so on and so forth. Also on this day he trained. In front of the couch he was doing his daily push-ups while his girlfriend sat on the couch with her feet laid on his back and a glass of wine in one hand and a book in the other.

Kitty was kind of annoyed of permanent training because she hardly saw Dudley in the last month. But at least she had something she could put her feet on while she was reading.  
"Dudley your back is a really comfortable footrest." She mocked grinning.

"Thanks. ...25... It means a lot to me that… 26… you have a place where you can put… 27… your feet on."  
"I know. By the way how many push-ups are left?"  
"Just… 34… sixteen." Panted Dudley exhausted.

"And you know that muscles are useless in the weightlessness?"  
"Yep… 40… But it´s never bad to be in a good shape."  
Kitty sighed shaking her head. "You should take a break, this permanent training can´t be so good. Also this is your sixth set, I think."

"Nope… 41… it´s good for me and by the way… 42… don´t pretend you don´t like it."  
"Pardon?" meant Kitty still smiling.  
"I know…44… how you´ve been looking…45… at me for the last days. You´re… 46… always undressing me with… 47… your eyes. And of course… 48… not only with them"

"Don´t pretend you don´t like that." Laughed Kitty. "But you´re right, Mr. Six-pack."  
"50!" shouted Dudley and turned heavily breathing on his back. "Enough for today. I have to prepare for the first decision show now."

"So they found a few other guys that want to risk their lifes?"  
"Unfortunately yes. I thought I would be the only one who is crazy enough."  
"And who are your opponents?"

"Miss Petropolis together with her crown and sash. I have to say she looks really ridiculous dress like this. I mean it´s like you won a medal and you carrying this medal good visibly around to let everyone know that you won a damn medal."

"And the others?" intervened Kitty before Dudley could get too excited about the medal thing. He wasn´t a real friend of medals, in his opinion this stuff had no meaning at all.  
"Eric, the water-delivery guy and your former crush, and that´s all."

"He isn´t my former crush, Dudley!"  
"Really?" Dudley looked at Kitty with a raised eyebrow. "I can remember that a certain person always began purr like a teenage cat girl when that Eric came in sight."

"Okay maybe I… do you really want to start this conversation?"  
"No… not after what happened the last time. Not after what happened to my face."  
"Hey I already said that I´m sorry!" meant Kitty remembering at the last time.

The last time. With that is a situation meant that happened three months ago in the office. Eric just walked in and Kitty watched him with delight from the tea-kitchen counter how he refilled the water dispenser as Dudley arrived there.

"Hey Kitty what are you…" He immediately realized what Kitty was looking at and he heard her purring. She shouldn´t purr when she´s looking at that guy, Dudley thought that he should be the only one who makes her purr. He was very particular about that. Before their relationship started Kitty had never believed that Dudley would be so jealous.

Well, he was of course not the kind of boyfriend that controlled everything she did, mainly because he knew that Kitty needed her space, but when something like that happened he became really really jealous.

And that also happened in this situation. Dudley narrowed his eyes and walked towards Eric who just finished his job.  
"Hello Eric." Growled Dudley.

"Oh, hello agent… uhm…"  
"Agent Puppy."  
"Oh yeah agent Puppy… isn´t your partner that hot cat chick… Katswell, right?"  
Dudley had to prevent himself from beating his fist into Eric´s stupidly grinning face.

"Yes…"  
"And how is she doing? Is she still single?" asked Eric curiously.  
"Why do you want to know this?"  
"Because single woman are much easier to seduce. But I think it wouldn´t be hard to get her anyway. And Dude, she would be a nice notch in my bedpost. I mean she isn´t the hottest chick I´ve ever had but a T.U.F.F. agent… " That was enough for Dudley, all barricades, his whole self-control, broke.

No one, really absolutely no one, was allowed to talk about Kitty like that. He now did what he tried to prevent earlier. And as his fist broke Eric´s nose with a beautiful crackle sound and he landed on the ground Dudley´s heart danced in joy.

"No one talk about her like that!" Shouted Dudley at Eric who rolled on the floor holding his bleeding nose.  
"Dudley what are you doing?!" screamed Kitty who watched the whole scene.  
"I´m defending you! You should hear how he´s talking about you."  
"That´s no reason to beat him!"

"Hey, I do what I think it´s best to defend you!"  
"You´re such an idiot Dudley!" she said grabbed a mug from the counter and poured the containing fluid in Dudley´s face who immediately began to scream in pains.  
"HOT COFFEE! HOT COFFEE! WHY DO YOU SPLASH HOT COFFEE IN MY FACE!"

"Oh my god I didn´t want that!" she cried shocked, filled the mug with cold water and poured it again over Dudley´s face.  
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! THAT DOESN`T MAKE IT BETTER!"

The whole thing ended with an ambulance bringing Dudley to a hospital where his face got bandaged. For more than a week he looked like a mummy. The whole situation had just one good thing, Eric never appeared in the office again.

"I forgive you… and If I´m allowed to give a personal statement about that I would say that the burns of the third degree totally worth it" Said Dudley to Kitty as he got up from the floor. He stretched his sweaty and exhausted arms.

"You´re still an idiot."  
"And you are still my girlfriend." Retorted Dudley smiling. "So who won?"  
"Hm… your point. You won. But back to the main subject. This T.V. shows…"  
"You mean _Hyper Space_?"  
"Yes. What will exactly happen in that show?"

"Well we all will go through the usual astronaut training what the producers aggravate through adding the standard repertoire of embarrassing challenges. In the end the viewers will vote who will be the one that is send to the stars. Oh and there is also some kind of talent show or something with that all candidates get introduced… and I still don´t have an idea what to do there. Maybe I dance, you know that I´m a good dancer." Explained Dudley.

"Yes, you are but… Do you really want that? I mean the whole country will see you and you maybe will get humiliated pretty bad. There is also a certain probability that the audience won´t vote for you." Kitty was really worried about what this show would make out of Dudley. The T.V. business was hard and she supposed that you have to be a complete soulless asshole to win in that T.V. show. Or you have to have a strong will.

"Of course I want that, this my oldest dream. When I was a small pup I wanted to become an astronaut. And I would never forgive myself if I let this chance slip away. Don´t you have such a dream?"

"I had. My dream was it to become a T.U.F.F. agent."  
"So you´re living your dream? Tell me, how is it? Is it great?"  
"Oh yeah. This job gave me everything. Self-confidence, Pride and a boyfriend. I love it." Beamed Kitty.

"You see? I want that too. Well except the boyfriend thing."  
"Really? You don´t want to have a boyfriend? Because our neighbor Sean is single again. You would be a great couple." Grinned Kitty mischievously.

"Hm… I would make an exception for Sean." Laughed Dudley and Kitty joined his laughter.  
"Well anyway, I´m going to take a shower now. Want to join Kitty?"  
"Did the thinking about Sean give you that idea."  
"You want to join or not?" repeated Dudley.  
"Turn on the water, I´m on my way."


	3. Destroy them

"Comander, one of your friends just arrived. I´ll give him the microphone." It rattled a bit and for a second the sound acoustic feedback was audible which was then replaced by Keswick´s voice.  
"Dudley, what´s wrong? A c..c..confused technician called me that I should come here i..i..immediately."

"Where should I start…" sighed Dudley and described his whole situation. From the start of the mission to them moment the anomaly got him in its cruel gravitational pull.  
"What?!" Keswick stammered some indistinct syllables and repeated his first question again. "What?!"

"It´s ending Keswick." Dudley confirmed the fact that his stammering friend tried to understand.  
"But isn´t there any p..p..possibility to escape for you?"  
"You are the scientist. Tell me."  
"Well… If you overload your main engines for a s..s..short period of time. Let´s say 20 seconds. You could may leave the gravitational field of the singularity."

"Believe it or not…" began Dudley "but I already thought that through. Please don´t forget that I´m approximately nine trillion Kilometer away from earth."  
"Nine trillion… One light year?!"

"Yes." Said Dudley calmly. "And the Möbius Mk II worked perfectly by the way."  
"Then do it!"  
"I can´t Keswick, I can´t! The Möbius Mk II blew up after a malfunction! I can´t survive here! I just have the choice between two kinds of deaths. First is dying in the anomaly and second is starving in space. Don´t forget I´d need about 20 years with the common drive to come back. And my supplies are almost down! I´ll die anyway, so I choose the first variant… it´s fast and not so painful. A fast and merciful death."

"Dudley t..t..that´s terrible!" shouted Keswick shocked.  
"I know. But there´s no other choice. So it´s maybe time for me to say some last words to you Keswick. I want to thank you for all you´ve done for me and for being there when I needed you. It´s an honor for me that I can call you, now that my life ends, a friend."

"Dudley I… We…" he tried to suppress it but finally Keswick´s mind accepted the truth. So he answered with a sad "It was a h..h..honor for me too, my friend. Farewell." Keswick flopped down on a chair and handed the microphone back to Bill, the voice of mission control.

"Uhm.. Commander there is a small Lady here that tries to steal my microphone. Do you want to…" again Dudley heard the acoustic feedback and then a well-known voice.  
"Of course he wants to talk to me, I´m his mother!" Peg Puppy screamed angrily at the poor Bill. "Dudley, that´s enough! You had enough fun, get back home!"

"Mom…" Dudley knew that his mother probably overheard his conversation with Keswick.  
"No! You come home." Peg´s voice cracked. "And you move back into my house… and you" she wasn´t able to continue at that point. Her throat was constricted and tears ran down her cheeks. Dudley couldn´t see that but he could imagine how it looked like. It broke his heart to make his mother cry.

"Mom, you know that I love you?"  
The answer was just a sobbing sound that maybe meant 'yes'.  
"And I will always love you, no matter what comes. Believe me."

* * *

Seven months earlier.  
Dudley stepped behind the stage and dried his wet forehead with a tissue. They told him that he would sweat but not why. He first thought because of stage fright but that wasn´t the reason. The real reason or reasons were these unbelievable bright spotlights which burnt with the intensity of thousand suns.

That was pretty hard to stand, like the fact that the show wasn´t over yet. But the next thing that would happen was a worse than these spotlights. A small weasel with a headset was already there to fetch him.

"Ready Mr. … uhm… Puppy?" said the weasel with his eyes on a clipboard and walked into the next hallway without waiting for Dudley´s answer.  
"Oh this is going to be great." Even if sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable he followed the weasel to an old sojus capsule which the management of the channel must have either stolen from a museum or borrowed from the Russians.

No matter what was true Dudley knew that this would be bad anyway. The idea was that all three candidates would get crammed in this capsule until one after the other would give up and leave the tin can.

"Get in Mr. Puppy, the others already wait for you. You´re a bit late"  
Dudley was the last one, that was true. But he wasn´t late. His dance for this childish talent show needed the time that it needed. And he thought that his dance was well received by the audience unlike the stuff that his opponents done. Eric just showed his muscles to the audience, what just a few of them praised with applause. Miss Petropolis did something very similar.

She made some kind of bathing suit contest… with herself as the only competitor. A month later the famous T.V. satiric 'Oliver Kalker' should describe her appearance as _"So full of narcissism and egotism it was like watching someone masturbating in front of a mirror."  
_  
Dudley had to bend because the hatch of the capsule was so small. The air was thick and hot. Eric and Miss Petropolis eyed him angry. Especially Eric was really angry.  
"Seems like someone can´t forgive." Dudley thought giggling.

The strategy he had for this little game was just waiting until the others would give up. That should be possible. He didn´t really like waiting but in this special case he would be able to wait for so long.  
"Okay, everyone." A voice shouted from the speaker. "Let the game begin."

Silence followed to that. The three just stared at each other. It seemed that everyone had the same strategy as Dudley. But he should be proven wrong as Miss Petropolis raised her voice.  
"What are you doing here?" she asked Dudley.  
"Pardon?"

"You are a T.U.F.F. agent. You get paid well and you don´t have a reason to do that so why are you here?"  
"It´s just a dream of me. I always wanted to travel to space."  
"Oh we have a dreamer here." Mocked Eric from the side. "How cute."

"Right. Cute." Laughed Miss Petropolis. "A stupid little dim dreamer. You have to know I did a little research Dudley Puppy. You little mama´s boy."  
"He´s such a wimp."  
"Yeah, did you know that he is afraid of the thunder?"

"The thunder?!" Eric threw his head back and laughed manically.  
"Yes, and I can name you a few more embarrassing details about his life."  
Now the deep hits began. Dudley and the audience listened how Miss Petropolis listed every single embarrassing thing about his life which she had from a private detective, at least that´s what she claimed.

She revealed even things about him that he didn´t know, habits which he didn´t see anymore but which were nevertheless embarrassing.  
"Oh Puppy you´re such a fool… like your little girlfriend, Kitty Katswell. I have a few little juicy information about her too."

That was enough. Dudley had to stop that right now. It was bad enough that he got dragged through the mire but he wouldn´t allow it that Kitty would have to stand the same humiliation.  
"It´s enough." He said and stood up. "I´ll go but do you mind if I say some words to you?"  
"Go ahead loser." Grinned Eric triumphing.

"Okay, ladies first. Miss Petropolis, you really look cute with your sash and crown. Like a princess. But does being a princess pay the bills? I don´t think so. I mean okay, everything is okay as long as you still get invited to garden shop openings and such things but what will happen next year? When another girl inherits your title because we both know that you won´t get younger and god knows that you won´t get prettier. I suppose that you´re a professional beauty competition competitor so you have no alternatives. Your look is your income. And because the ravages of time already become visible in your face you´re searching for alternatives now. That´s why you are here. You want to become a star to safe your income. But let me tell you something. You have absolutely no talent. Not even a quantum of it. And son you will… " Dudley made an obscene gesture. "… every zit blasted channel intern to get a job. Wait… you already do that, right? Also a reason why you are in this show. Anyway, remember… they´ll just use you the way you wanted to use them. I give you three years until a janitor of a motor inn finds you lying on the ground beside your bed choked on your own vomit."

Eric laughed about that what made Dudley turn on him. "So you think that´s funny glass nose?" he asked in the same polite tone in which he talked to Miss Petropolis. "If I compare you two I have to say that you are as pathetic as she is. The rich playboy which is collecting notches in his bedpost but never realized that his life is empty like his drinks after a long night full of clubbing. You´re the real wimp. Do you remember how I broke your nose? I bet you ran to your daddy after that but he said that you should handle it yourself. Do you know why he didn´t even think about helping you? Because you are such a great disappointment for him that he couldn´t even stand it that you´re in one room with him. That makes you sad every time you think about it… like the fact that your mother left your family when you were five. For the pool-boy or gardener or something I think… sorry but my information are not so accurate like Miss Petropolis´s. But what I know is that she probably never loved you. I mean why would a mother leave her family? Any suggestions?"

The smiles vanished from the faces of them both, they just sat there shocked and in silence.  
"Double kill." Thought Dudley and kept on smiling politely at them then he opened the hatch and offered them the advantage to go first. "Well, I´ll leave but maybe one of you wants to be the first?"  
Without saying anything more both of them left the capsule.

Kitty watched the whole thing on a screen in the middle of the live audience of the show. Her mouth was wide open. She never expected that from Dudley. That was the coldest and baldest thing she ever heard. Even the rest of the audience which usually applaud to everything, like the sheep they were, was silent.  
"Well…" Wolf Spitzer who hosted the whole show tried to find the right words. "I think we have a winner for this test. Mr. Dudley Puppy… uhm… well our therapist take care of the other two competitors and we´ll see again after this short commercial break."

The spotlights went off and Wolf left the stage while shaking his head. Kitty meanwhile took the chance to search for Dudley. In one of the dressing rooms behind the stage which was made available for every participant she found him.

He was changing his clothes and first got a fright as Kitty entered the room because he thought it was a stranger or even worse one of his opponents who wants revenge for the things he said but as he recognized that it´s just her he got calm again.

"Kitty, can´t you knock?!"  
"Like I haven´t seen you naked before."  
"Your point." Laughed Dudley and continued changing his clothes. While he did that Kitty sat down on a chair and gave him a puzzled look.

"What?" he asked as he realized that she was staring at him.  
"Dudley, what was that?"  
"This was war, Kitty. That wasn´t my plan at first, I first wanted to pull that through by just sitting and staring at them. But then they started that insulting shit…"

"…What you also stand without saying anything." she completed. "But what made you beating them up with words?"  
"Well, I think I said it too you once, nobody talks bad about you. I won´t allow that. Besides, you weren´t part of the show and you never wanted to participate. So it was just unfair of them to insult you. They made two mistakes."

"But don´t you think that was a bit hard?"  
"That´s exactly what I asked agent Scarecrow who helped me to collect the information about these two. And he answered that I have just two possibilities. First is to make friends with them, what was impossible after the Eric incident, or to destroy them if they attack."

"And you destroy them. That was really cruel of you, I almost haven´t recognized you. It was like someone else was talking. " Kitty was still afraid that the time in this show would change the Dudley she loved. That it would transform him from the happy hopeful dreamer to a mean pessimistic opportunist.

"Hey, I´m still myself. Don´t worry Kitty. Nothing will happen to me here. Neither physically nor psychologically. It´s save, believe me."


	4. Your new home

**-Look what I found in the depths of my hard disks! Hope you enjoy it :D-**

"Where is Kitty?" asked Dudley nervously. He was running out of time and his last wish was talking to her before the inevitable would happen.  
"She´ll be here soon, Commander." Mission control tried to calm him down. "By the way, do you think you can repair the transmission module in front of you? So we could have a constant video link to you?"

"Hm… I think I have an idea. Give me a few minutes." Dudley opened the metal cover under the camera lens. With a firm grip he ripped the camera out of its fixing. Then he took the little camcorder which served him well and opened the plastic cover.

He took a few wires out of it and connected it with the wires which protrude out of the hole which was covered by an iron cover before he removed it. Finally he put the camera carefully into the hole and switched it on.

A surprised "Ah!" followed by a shocked "Oh!" sounded from the speakers. The first time since the connection broke off mission control and also the others saw Dudley. And he wasn´t a nice view. He looked overtired with bloodshot eyes and eye circles that hung to his knees. But the most terrible view was Dudley´s left hand which had a big red hole in it.

"Sweety, what happened?!" Called Peg so loudly that it was audible even though she didn´t speak into the microphone.  
"Meteorites… these little things are worse than bullets! I had to cauterize the wound. I can tell you that hurts like hell." Dudley looked a bit tortured as he remembered how he heated a piece of metal to ram it into his bleeding wound. The hissing and the steam of the evaporated blood were memories he really liked to forget.

"Commander!" the voice off mission control torn him out of these disgusting thoughts. "We´re receiving very strange energy signatures from the sensor array in front of the shuttle. Can you see something there?"

Dudley looked confused through the big window pane. Lightings flashed on the tip of the shuttle. The peculiar thing was that the lightnings seemed to come from the back of the shuttle.  
"What the heck is that?" thought Dudley out loud. "Let´s see…" He keyed some commands into the computer and called up the diagnosis program.

Immediately a red warning flashed up on the screen.  
"Oh… crap." He cursed.  
"What?"  
"I have some kind of energy drawdown in the reactor… I think I see now where the energy is going."

"That isn´t good! Wait…" a quiet mumbling came from the speakers which suddenly stopped abruptly. "Okay… I just did some calculations and if I´m right you just have 120 seconds left before your engines shut down."

"Damn… I could have thought of something." Meant Dudley calm. "What causes the drawdown?"  
"I suppose there is a short circuit in the reactor because it´s overheated. Maybe some conductive parts stretched because of the heat. Commander, you have to cool the reactor down somehow! Use the liquid nitrogen of the environment system!"

Dudley didn´t hesitate and searched for a container in which he could transport the 77 Kelvin cold fluid. As he hovered with a thermos can to the covering behind which the environment system. He moved it away and revealed a little pool full of steaming nitrogen. With the courage of desperation he reached with the full can into the pool.

The extreme cold brunt for a few seconds on Dudley´s skin. Then his hand became numb. As he pulled it out of the steam he knew why. His left hand was frozen, it looked like blue ice.  
Dudley flew to the reactor, he just had 45 seconds left. In this time he had to reach the reactor, find the spot with the greatest heat and pour it over it.

Reaching the reactor was not a big deal but finding the spot was another problem. The reactor wasn´t big. A circa one cubic meter big box with many furiously blinking lights on it. Knowing that pushing any of these buttons wouldn´t have any use Dudley eyed the outer of the reactor closely. Until he saw it.

The main energy cable melted and was now somehow connected to the shuttles hull. The metal was still hot and glowing. Dudley grabbed the cable on its insulation and was able to pull it easily of the wall. He reconnected the cable and poured the fluid nitrogen over it.

"I hope that´ll be enough." Sighed Dudley as he pushed himself off to fly back to his seat.  
"Good work, Commander." Called mission control from the speaker. "All energy levels are back to normal."

"So how much time is left?" said Dudley as he ripped the thermos can out of his left hand. Three of his fingers broke of his still frozen hand and fell to the ground.  
"Uhm… that was disgusting." Commented mission control the falling fingers.  
"I asked you how much time is left!" repeated Dudley angry.

"Yeah, it´s okay. 30 minutes I think."  
"Good" panted Dudley released. "I hope that´s enough time to talk to Kitty."

* * *

Two months earlier.  
Dudley was excited. Just yesterday the audience decided that it was him who would be on the shuttle. To be honest, that wasn´t really surprising after Dudley´s little speech in the capsule. The two others didn´t dare to do anything that could arise his anger.

Miss Petropolis even quit earlier from the show and went to the Petropolis collage. Dudley was pretty happy about that because of two facts. Fact one was that there was one competitor less and fact two was that he, even if it wasn´t his intention, reached something speech. Miss Petropolis really rethought her life.

But all that didn´t excite him right now. It was the fact that he would meet the crew of mission control in a few minutes. The guys that control the whole flight and help him to make his dream come true. Without knowing them Dudley already knew that he would perfectly get along with these guys.

He expected that they would be a bit like him, star fanatics with a kid´s capacity for enthusiasm.  
"Well Mr. Puppy." Began the tall warthog in his green military uniform. "That was the whole center. Or how you can call it for the next 60 days, your home. Behind this door is the mission control room. Go in there and meet the guys that will bring you up into space."

"Don´t you come with me?" asked Dudley as the warthog wanted to go.  
"In there? Are you nuts?! These guys are too strange. Wild horses couldn´t drag me in there if it isn´t necessary." And with these words the guy cleared off. Dudley, now a bit unsure what he would find there, opened the door and entered the wide half circle formed room.

Everywhere stood computers or strange devices he had never seen. To his surprise the room was empty, just three guys, an owl, a cat and a shrew, stood in the middle of it in NASA T-shirts. They were laughing as Dudley stepped closer to hear what they say.

"Some knives are sharper than others" meant the shrew.  
"Yes, and metal is a good conductor." Added the owl.  
"Schrödinger had no idea from where he had the idea for his legendary equation." Laughed the cat.  
"Well I´m bad at skiing" admitted the shrew.

"Uhm excuse me…" Dudley was a bit confused. The things about they talked had no common context.  
"Oh, hey." All three greeted in unison.  
"Yeah, hey… First question, what was that?"

"What… ah you mean our conversation. Well we´re playing and association game." The cat explained fast.  
"A what?" replied Dudley even more perplex.

"It´s easy. I´ll explain it to you. For example what we just said. Drew her." The cat pointed at the shrew "said something about knives. Knives are made from metal. So Tim here." He pointed at the owl. "Said that metal is a good conductor. Mostly electrons were conducted so I began with the Schrödinger equation. An equation which Schrödinger has written while he was together with his affair in a cabin in the mountains. So Drew…"

"I think I got it." Intervened Dudley before the cat would lose itself in further explanations.  
"Okay then let´s try something. The moon shines so bright tonight."  
Dudley thought for a few seconds and answered then with. "The eagle has been landed."

"Not bad for the first time." Giggled the cat amused. "By the way, my name is Bill."  
"Nice to meet you Bill, my name is Dudley."  
"Oh, so you´re the guy we´re going to send up?"

"Seems so."  
"Well I have to say, and also for my both friends here, we´re big fans of you. How you handled this Eric and Miss Petropolis in that capsule… Awesome. I even have the clip on my smartphone." Bill pulled his smartphone out and pressed on a little file called 'The moment'.

He searched for a certain part of the clip and showed it to him.  
"Here look at Eric´s face when you end your speech." It was still strange for Dudley to see and hear himself on tapes. He watched himself holding his speech and looked in the moment at Eric´s face. His eyes suddenly became empty and his whole expression turned from happy to devastated.

That was the first Dudley had seen the clip with his eyes on Eric and the first time he realized the whole impact of his words.  
"This brief moment when something in him dies… I live for that." Bill put his smartphone grinning away while Dudley still stared at the place where it just was.

Finally he understood about what Kitty talked back then. That wasn´t him. That was someone else, someone evil. A person that liked to hurt people. Or maybe a part of him that slumbers deep inside of him and waits to be released.

"I..I.. think about that later." Thought Dudley and tried to get out of these dark thoughts by asking Bill something. "Is it always so empty here?"  
"No usually not. But the whole team except the communication officers got a free day today."  
"So you three are…"

"Yes. The communication officers." Completed Bill. "We are the guys that maintain contact between you and mission control. We recently had some problems with the new KCom-8. But it should be done by now… I hope."

"And why does it need three guy to communicate with me?" The question sounded a bit provocative but Bill answered calmly.  
"Because that thing is damn complicated. We need 20 of the world´s best engineers to install that thing. So you can imagine how difficult it is to use that thing."

"Hm… that´s sounds plausible." Admitted Dudley nodding.  
"I know." Bill took a look at his watch. "Oh, 9pm. You should maybe think about going to bed now."  
"What, already? But I´m not tired."

"Your training begins tomorrow at 4:30am. You should get some sleep."  
"Okay" sighed Dudley. "But we´ll see each other tomorrow, right?"  
"Dude, you´ll see us the next 60 days. You´ll see us so much that you´ll hate our faces soon." Laughed Bill and patted Dudley´s shoulder. "Good luck Commander."

**-Oh and before I forget it, special thanks to HiddenWolf97 for helping me finding a better summary for this story. Thanks, man ;D-**


	5. All that matters

"I´m running out of time! Please tell me that she´s at least here in the building." Dudley´s voice sounded weak and weepy as he begged those words into the microphone. But please, show me the person who don´t get at least a bit weepy when the death of this person is imminent.

Also Dudley who faced his death all in all relatively stoic couldn´t resist to sound a bit weepy if it´s about his last wish. If the calculations of the scientists were right he had maybe just ten minutes left. That´s a quiet short time to tell the one you love goodbye forever.

Tired let Dudley sank his head on the console in front of him and closed his eyes. For such a situation his mind was relatively clear. There was not much flying around in his mind except the wish to see Kitty one last time and a question he wanted to ask.

"Keswick…" he breathed with his head on the console. "What happens if I get into this anomaly?"  
"D..D..Do you really want to hear that?" asked Keswick trying to protect him from something that could scare him.

"I´ll die no matter what happens so no need to wrap things into cotton anymore." Dudley lifted his head up and gave the camera a nice smile.  
"If you want to h..h..hear it, okay. Singularities are collections of great amounts of mass. We don´t measure their weight in kilogram, pounds or anything else. We measure their w..w..weight with sun masses. A big black hole can have a m..m..mass of more than 100,000,000 suns. Yours is a smaller one, I would say, 10 to 20 suns. Anyway, so much mass at one point can bend space time in a way we can´t even imagine."

"So that means that thing will eat me and then will spit me out somewhere else?" interrupted Dudley the physics lecture with a question.  
"Possible but no… you´ll get part of this giant mass. Black holes never let s..s..something go. Not even light! So in the end you´ll get crushed, with the ship."

After Keswick spoke these words a terrible howl became audible in the mission control room. It was Peg who couldn´t hold back her tears after hearing the coming fate of her son.  
"Oh uhm… but there is of course the theory that the i..i..information is saved in the black hole."  
Meant Keswick trying more to calm Peg down than Dudley.

"The information?" asked Dudley through the crying of his mother.  
"Well, it´s similar to a CD… a two dimensional CD. And you´re somehow saved on this CD."  
"So I stay alive?" a bit hope rose in Dudley.

Keswick moved a bit closer to the camera and whispered the next thing what should destroy this new hope immediately. "No, Dudley… It was just to calm Peg down. This is just a theory."  
"Oh, okay…" sighed Dudley disappointed.

* * *

One week earlier.  
Totally relaxed sat the white dog in his bathing tub and watched how the rubber duck made his way lathery surface to the other side. He fought against the sleep. This was the last week before the start and the guys from Hyperspace gave him this week of to relax. So the first thing after he arrived at the apartment and couldn´t find Kitty was filling the bath tub and taking a bath.

Usually Dudley wasn´t the bath guy, liked a good shower much more but this bath was so pleasant that he had never left it if the phone hadn´t rang.  
"Oh come on!" sighed Dudley and rose to his feet out of the warm water. As he stood there, naked and shivering because of the fresh air in the bathroom, he realized that he forgot to put a towel out of the little cabinet on the other side of the room.

Generally he realized that the layout of the bathroom was relatively stupid. There was a shower directly besides the bathtub, the basins hung so deep that kindergartners were the only one who could wash their hands without problems and the toilet was in the middle of the room.

Using it felt like sitting on throne. Dudley could remember the first time Kitty showed him the bathroom. She opened the door with the words. "Get ready for a redefinition of what you know as bathroom."

The days after Dudley moved into her apartment the bathroom became some kind of insider running gag between them. Dudley even put a sign on the bathroom door on which with big black letters was written "Bathroom, a redefinition."

The whole thing went so far that they both stood almost half an hour in the doorframe and talked about the room like it was a painting. "The positioning of the toilet in the middle of the room shows the strive of the artist for recognition for his masterpiece." Kitty said in a nasal tone.

Dudley nodded, wrinkled his nose and added. "Did you recognize the unequal gaps between the tiles? Here we can clearly see the typical handwriting of the master. He used that in all his works of art." To their defense, both of them weren´t really sober as they did that. And with not really sober I mean three bottles of wine.

Dudley stepped carefully out of the tub and slipped to the little cabinet and got a towel out. This towel he didn´t use to dry himself, he threw his on the ground stepped on it and began to do little steps without lifting up his feet to move forward. He made almost the whole way to the phone as it stopped ringing.

"You got to be kidding me." He shouted at the phone. It was always the same. When you´re in the bathing tub the phone is ringing but before you can reach it stops ringing. This must be third or fourth time. "Okay." Panted Dudley calming himself down. "At least nobody sees me…" Dudley was cut short by the door that opened next to him.

Kitty entered the apartment… and she wasn´t alone. With her was her mother who first had a shocked expression that changed into a mischievous grin. In a contrary to Kitty´s face which went red in embarrassment. Also Dudley didn´t feel well as the eyes of Kitty´s mother scanned his trained body.

"DUDLEY!" screamed Kitty finally.  
"I..I.." stammered Dudley trying to explain what the heck he was doing there.  
"GET DRESSED!"

"Wait, no need to hurry." Said Kitty´s mom laying her hand on her shoulder .  
"MOM?!" shouted Kitty shocked at her mother.  
"Uhm… I better get dressed." Meant Dudley at last and ran out of the room.  
Kitty´s mother looked dreamily behind the naked dog and said to her daughter. "Now I see what you liked about him."

"MOM?!" repeated Kitty unbelieving.  
"I mean he´s a nice but he´s not really the smart guy. Also he´s so childish. I always wondered what you like about him. And now I see it."  
"What the hell mom?" Kitty´s disbelieve about what her mother said increased even more.

"What? I know how to enjoy life… and now I see you know it too." Smiling the eyes of Mrs. Katswell wandered to the ceiling imagining something that was definitely nothing for kids.  
"First, stop imagining whatever you do and second all these things you said I love about him. I love his childish ways and it doesn´t matter for me that he´s not the smartest guy. Sometimes he can be really smart! Even if I have to admit… what we just saw wasn´t an example for his smart moments."

Kitty picked up the big suitcase of her mother and carried it into the living room which also a now dressed Dudley entered.  
"Kitty darling where is the bathroom?" called Kitty´s mother who didn´t followed her into the room.  
"Search for the door with the sign Bathroom, a redefinition." Answered Dudley the question.  
"Ah! Got it, thanks."

"You´re welcome… Well." He turned to his girlfriend. "That was embarrassing."  
"It was worse for me than for you… what was the idea behind this?"  
"The phone rang and I didn´t want to make the floor wet."

"Oh god Dudley…" Kitty smacked the palm of her hand against her forehead. "Seriously?!"  
"Yeah…" replied Dudley. "Sorry, I forgot that your mother visits us."  
"You forgot?! You invited her." Hissed Kitty.

"I know I know…" meant Dudley trying to calm Kitty down.  
"Then why… Hey mom." Kitty´s expression changed from angry to happy as her mother entered the room.

What came next was the pure torture for Dudley because he and Kitty did a city tour with Mrs. Katswell. To explain that, Petropolis was a beautiful city with dozens of museums, galleries and bookstores the problem was Dudley hated them all. He considered museums as boring, he didn´t weather understood or liked the art exposed in museums and bookstores… well he had his problems with reading. Not that he couldn´t read, he was just an unbelievable slow reader.

As Dudley had to visit every museum, every gallery and every bookstore Petropolis had he asked himself if that was maybe some kind of revenge from Kitty for the thing that happened in front of her mother this morning. But after almost six hours of looking at grotesque pieces of modern art and a boring tour through the geology museum Kitty put mercy before justice and they went back home.

Like the pope visiting another country Dudley fell on his knees and kissed the ground as they passed the threshold of the apartment. "Finally back at home." He laughed with madness in his voice.  
"It´s okay Dudley." Meant Kitty patting gently his head. Then she walked past him in the kitchen and called from there. "I´m going to make coffee."

"Good idea, honey." Said her mother who also walked past the kneeing now and already sat down on one of the comfortable couches in the living room. Dudley snuggled the known ground a bit longer than he followed Mrs. Katswell and also sat down on the couch. He took a look at the hallways, to check if Kitty was still in the kitchen or already on her way back, then he began to whisper.

"Okay, Mrs. Katswell. I hope you had a nice day until now."  
"Yes, I had." Confirmed Kitty´s mom. "Why do you whisper?"  
"Because Kitty got an incredibly good hearing and I don´t want that she hears the following." Dudley cleared his throat quietly. "I know that the tradition is usually that you ask the father of your girlfriend this but I know what happened in your family so this is more than impossible."

"You don´t have to tell that to me." Growled Mrs. Katswell suppressing angrily those bad memories from the past. "Anyway, what is this traditional question you want to ask me?"  
Again Dudley looked at the hallway and checked again if Kitty was finished with coffee making. "I ask for the permission to ask for your daughters hand in marriage."

Mrs. Katswell´s jaw dropped down to the ground. She hadn´t expected that from this dog, that he would venture this step. Founding a family with her daughter.  
Even if she joked around this morning she couldn´t really see what Kitty saw in him. And as Kitty´s mother she thought one step further. She couldn´t imagine him as husband and certainly not as a father.

"I don´t know what I should answer…" she stammered confused.  
"See, I love your daughter and I want to do this. Your blessing is really important for me. I want to have the family behind me, not against me. I think family is all that matters in the end. And she is all that matters to me."

That were some wise words and Kitty´s mom was surprised that they came from this dog, from this childish dog… he sounded almost like an adult. Should she give him a try? He wasn´t a bad guy and Kitty loved him.

"I´ll tell you my opinion." Said Mrs. Katswell after some thinking. "I don´t really know if you are marriageable material…" for a second she stopped and watched Dudley´s face what was so exsanguinated that his skin shimmered blue through his white fur. "…but you´re lucky that I´m a Beatles fan. And like them I believe that love is all you need. You got my blessing."

The blood rushed immediately back into Dudley´s face as he heard that. Beaming he jumped from the couch trying to keep his voice down so that Kitty couldn´t hear him.  
In all this time while they talked they haven´t wondered why Kitty needed so much time to make coffee. While the whole talk she stood in the kitchen door and eavesdropped the whole conversation, every single word.

In the moment Dudley jumped from the couch she entered the living room with big eyes, shivering hands and a face which said that she heard it all.  
"Oh… dammit." Cursed Dudley as he saw his possible future fiancé. "Kitty I… I don´t even have a ring yet. I…"

"I don´t need a ring." She said stepping closer to him kissed him.  
"So the answer is?" asked Dudley as they moved apart.  
"Yes you idiot." Kitty laughed with tears in her eyes. Ignoring that Kitty´s mother was even there the couple kissed its way to the bedroom.

Mrs. Katswell who was left in the empty living room just thought. "I think I leave you two alone and move into a hotel for this night… Or at least get some noise cancelling earphones."


	6. Murphy s Law

12 hours earlier.  
"So commander Puppy… nervous?" asked the pale research assistant who helped Dudley into the spacesuit. It wasn´t so easy to put this thing on alone. There were dozens of hooks and zips you have to close properly otherwise… well, the pressure difference between the suit and space would make your head explode like a Chinese watermelon.

After the assistant closed the last zip he patted with his small hand on Dudley´s shoulder. "Okay, that´s all now."  
"Thanks." Dudley was about to go but the pale guy stopped him.

"Hey wait, one last thing. I have a massage from a guy called Kes… uhm…"  
"Keswick?" completed Dudley.  
"Yes! And one from Bill, too. This Kes…whatever says that you should keep an eye on the reactor. It´s sometimes overheating. Oh and also on the Möbius Mk II. If the reactor overheats it will maybe provide the Möbius with too much power. That could destroy it what would mean that you are stuck up there."

"Good to know that. And what was the message from Bill?"  
"He just said… Good luck." Again the assistant patted on Dudley´s shoulder and left the locker room. The white dog in his space suit was alone now and in a contrary to his expectations of this moment weeks ago he didn´t feel anticipation, he felt nervous.

Not a paralyzing fear that keeps you from doing something, more an uneasy feeling in his stomach. But he wouldn´t stop making his dream real just because of something that is probably just an indigestion. Especially not now, when he was so close. So he left all warnings of his body behind and walked out of the room.

Only a long hallway separated him from this cliché kitschy scene where he will walk to the shuttle while a crowd around him is cheering. Something he would do reluctantly but that was part of the show. Well, there was something, better someone, he was looking forward to. Because before he would leave the hallway and enter the crowd he would have his last conversation with Kitty.

Without cameras, without anyone else listening. Alone. A real conversation, not the posed stuff for the cameras. In his heavy spacesuit he strode slowly towards her. She looked worried and even more nervous than he did in her red dress which she just wore on special occasions.

"Hey… you look good." Said Dudley scratching the back of his head.  
"You too." Kitty giggled a bit.  
"In this old thing?" Dudley looked smiling down at himself and then back at Kitty. Behind the faked smile she put on her face Dudley could feel that there was something that tortures her. Dudley knew that she would tell him that, she just needed a few seconds.

"Dudley…" she finally began to spit it out. "I´m afraid."  
"You?" Dudley was amazed that it was Kitty who was afraid. Okay, of course he was nervous but she? Usually Kitty was afraid of nothing. She was the one who usually kills the spiders who sneak in their bedroom while Dudley is hiding in a corner.

"Yes." She sighed a bit embarrassed. "I know I can´t expect you to stay here, not to follow your dream but… please, be careful up there. I want to see you back here safe and sound."  
"Of course." Meant Dudley and pressed a kiss on her forehead. "We have to plan our wedding… and it would be the furthest thing from my thoughts to be absent while we choose the color of the flowers or the form of the serviettes." He stroked gently with his heavy glove over her cheek and could see how tears began to form in their eyes.

"No, don´t cry now, please. You know when you cry I cry too and then we´ll both cry."  
"I know." Said Kitty pushing her tears back into her eyes. "Just promise me that you come back in one piece."

"I promise that I come back. I promise that I´ll come and marry you, I promise that we´ll move into a big house and that we´ll make a bunch of sweet kids. I promise you everything."  
"Just come back." Laughed Kitty. "That´s enough for a start. We´ll work on the rest later."

"I will. I…" Dudley stopped because Kitty suddenly looked like she was sick. "Are you okay?"  
"Yeah." Said Kitty breathing deeply. "I think I´m just nervous. The last days I feel sick."  
"You better visit a Doctor sooner or later."

"Don´t care about me. I´m fine."  
They shared a last passionate kiss then Dudley went through this door. But instead finding there the crowd there was another hallway which looked exactly like the one he just passed. With the exception that Kitty wasn´t there.

Determinately he walked down this last hallway and was about to open the door from which he could hear the crowd cheering as a voice from behind stopped him.  
"Mr. Puppy."

"Yes?" Dudley turned around and saw an orang-utan in a black suit with a black tie and a black attaché case in his hand walking towards him.  
"Oh, good. I was afraid that I missed you and that would be very… unpleasant."

"Okaaaaay." Meant Dudley confused by this strange guy. "I have to go so…"  
"Please just a second." Said the guy what stopped Dudley from walking away. "I want to say a few last words to you until we see again."

"Aha…" Dudley had a suspicion now who this guy was. Definitely one of these commercial guys who wants him to use one of his products while he was in space. Dozens of them already tried that and Dudley was able to make some easy money through that. But it was enough now, he already had to drink five different energy drinks and use three different deodorants up there. "See, Sir. I´m not interested in advertising…"

"I am not here to talk about such banalities." Called the guy with a stern, almost angry, voice. "You are starting a long journey Mr. Puppy. The next hours will only be the start of it."  
"Aha… Interesting." Dudley was about to go again but the guy stopped him again by grabbing his shoulder with a firm hand.

"Mr. Puppy, remember my words. Expect the unexpectable. And predict the unpredictable… Now rise and discover your full potential." And with these words the orang-utan turned around and walked through the same door he came through.

"These advertising guys just get weirder." Dudley shook his head and stepped through the door outside of the building. As Dudley came in sight the crowd began to cheer on a deafening noise level. Thousands of people, just separated from him through a makeshift iron fence, stood there and greeted him like he was a rockstar.

What Dudley had to do now, or to what he was bound by contract, was to walk through the little alley which was set by the fences and shake some hands, give some high fives and autographs. That made his way from the door to the little elevator platform which should lift him to the cockpit of the shuttle exponentially longer.

And while he was shaking hands, giving high fives and autographs a smell reached his nose. Mixture of the smell of the crowd and the oily kerosene smell which the shuttle emitted. Dudley followed the kerosene smell until it drowned the everything that came from the crowed and as he looked around he realized that he stood on the platform that began to lift him up slowly.

Through some speakers he could hear Wolf Spitzer announcing. "There he goes your candidate, ladies and gentleman, to advance into the depths of space. Dudley, all these people wish you the best. Good luck up there."

Friendly waved Dudley his hand a last time to the crowed below him until he entered the cockpit of the shuttle and closed the hatch behind him. It was a small cabin with a seat in the middle which was surrounded by all sorts of control panels with blinking lights on them. The cabin was connected through a heavy iron door with the rest of the ship.

Reactor room, loading bay sleeping quarters and so on. Without any further ado Dudley sat down on the seat, fastened his seatbelt and activated the Kcom-8.  
"Here mission control, commander Puppy do you read me? OVER."

"Commander Puppy…" thought Dudley smiling as he pushed the button of the Kcom-8. That sounded like something he could get used to even if he would prefer captain Puppy. "Yes, loud and clear mission control. Requesting clearance for takeoff. OVER"

"Roger that. Oh and Dudley." Bill changed from his stern mission control tone of voice to the voice he usually used when they talked to each other. "You got my massage?"  
"Yes." Meant Dudley laughing. "Thanks."

"Okay then." Bill announced with his mission control voice. "I start a two minute countdown… now. OVER."  
A red LED-display suddenly flashed up above Dudley´s head and showed him the time until takeoff.  
Like a robot he began to push buttons and type commandos into the computer. He has trained this scenario almost a thousand times in the simulator, he knew exactly what he had to do.

And that was important it has always been like that, that little mistakes could have great consequences on space missions. And nobody, especially not Dudley, wanted that the shuttle explodes just because of false settings.

"20 seconds left. OVER" it echoed from the speaker. Dudley has finished the start procedure and leaned nervously back in his seat. In a few seconds he would start and be the first one who leaves the sun system and the first one who would discover a new solar system called Therak3.

This solar system was interesting especially because of its sun what was approximately ten to twenty times bigger than our sun. Even if this wasn´t his choice, because the audience voted for this trip, it couldn´t be better. He could make a real discovery.

Dudley looked up at the display and the legendary last ten seconds began. A loud recording began to count the seconds down.  
"10…9…8" In this moment this bad feeling in his stomach made its presence felt. Something felt wrong about that but he couldn´t describe what.

"…7…6…5" Dudley closed his eyes and tried to stay calm. He took a few fast deep breaths and began to count along the last seconds. Together with the voice he screamed "…4…3…2…1… Liftoff!"  
With an unbelievable noise the engines transformed the fuel into a pillar of fire which drove the shuttle with breathtaking speed into the sky.

Breathtaking also described Dudley´s situation pretty well. The acceleration pressed the air out of his lungs. He felt a terrible burning pain in his chest and he hoped that this would stop now. But he should suffer a few seconds more, at least until the shuttle finally escaped earth´s gravity.

Retching Dudley fought for air with his hands holding his chest in pains. He needed a few breaths until he realized that he was lighter now. Like a feather, no lighter than a feather.  
"Wow…" whispered Dudley as he also realize that he hovered above his seat just held by his seatbelt.

He opened it and began to fly up towards the ceiling. "This is AWESOME!" Dudley pushed himself off the ceiling and made a few somersault what became immediately apparent as a mistake because he wasn´t able to stop rotating. Completely helpless drifted Dudley through the cabin and was just stopped by the big front window which he hit with his face.

"Aww… Damn I…" again Dudley breath was taken away from him. This time not by the acceleration of the shuttle main engines but by the sight which was offered by space to him. He saw the earth like just a few people saw it before. The blue planet from so high above that you were unable to recognize countries or cities. Just one big planet. "Wow…"

"Commander, requesting status report from you. OVER." Mission control spoke through the speaker.  
It was a bit hard for Dudley to get away from the beautiful sight but he floated back to his seat and activated the microphone. "I…I…I´m up here and it´s wonderful. The stars look beautiful and earth… just wow… OVER."

"Good to hear that you have fun up there. We are also celebrating down here. That was a start like by the book. Congratulations. OVER."  
"Awesome, we´re all happy. But I suppose that we can be much happier. OVER." Suspected Dudley amused.

"Yes and it´s pretty easy. To reach the next level of happiness you just have to activate the Möbius Mk II. OVER" meant Bill with an almost religious intonation.  
"You sound like the leader of a sect, Bill. OVER." Smirked Dudley.  
"Hm… that sound like an easy way to earn money if NASA give me the sack one day. "

Laughing searched Dudley at the control panel in front of him for the module with that he could control the Möbius drive what was a little display with a sliding pot and a button. By sliding the sliding pot Dudley could regulate the speed of the Möbius Mk II and with the button he could activate it.

"Mission control, I need a confirmation for my direction vector to activate the Möbius Mk. II. OVER." said Dudley staring through the front window again. He just couldn´t avert his gaze from the stars.  
"Okay, give us a second. OVER." Dudley could hear how Bill shouted a few things at the scientist behind him, he must have forgotten to switch of the microphone. "... Commander correct your course to Theta 90 degree and Phi 140 degree. OVER"

Dudley gripped the little joystick in front of him and turned the ship slowly.  
"It´s done." He called into the microphone. "Now I need the thrust vector. OVER" On this point the whole thing became interesting, at least for the scientist. After Dudley received the thrust vector from mission control he set the sliding pot and pushed the button.

In a contrary to the conventional drive and to what Dudley had expected it didn´t pushed him back into the seat. It felt more like standing on an escalator. The space around him drifted past him in an unbelievable velocity, the stars weren´t just sparkling dots anymore they melted to bright lines of white light that seem to pass by him.

"That is…" Dudley searched for a word with that he could express his amazement. He hadn´t seen something like this before, nobody has ever seen something like this before. He could have watched that forever and as the bright lines shrank back he couldn´t resist feeling a bit sad. But the rise of the sun of the solar system Therak3 compensated it for him.

A giant blue sun around which a few tiny planets whirled round. It really looked strange how fast these planets moved, just by watching it a few seconds Dudley realized that the planet that was the closest to the sun needed about a minute to complete his round.

With his eyes pinned to the stars his hand felt for the camcorder, after the fun there was work to do. Even if you couldn´t call it work making a video for the audience of Hyperspace.  
"People on youtube do that for fun." Thought Dudley as he switched on the camera.

"Hey everyone. Here is your candidate Dudley Puppy… Well… uhm" Dudley looked smiling into the camera as he let it go and showed the audience both of his hands. "If you hadn´t realized it yet, no gravity here." To prove his words Dudley made a somersault but this time he took care that he didn´t began to rotate like a washing machine.

"Awesome up here folks, especially the view." Dudley gave the camera a little push so it turned to the front window that the audience could see his discovery. "I have to say, thank you thank you thank you for sending me up here and…" a strange noise suddenly distracted him from his expression of thanks.

It sounded like something beat on the hull of the ship, something small. The noise would be compared best with the sound of rain. But rain? Here? Impossible. That had to be some kind of acoustical mirage, that was at least what Dudley expected. Maybe his brain was a bit messed up because of the weightlessness.

But that was no acoustic mirage he heard and his brain was alright, Dudley should realize quickly what was going on there. As he turned around and wanted to end the sentence he began before he heard the rain sound a little object smashed through the hull of the shuttle. Startled looked Dudley at the little stone that floated slowly past his nose.

"Shit asteroids!" cursed Dudley and tried to hide under something. His idea was to get as much material as possible between him and these bullets made from stone and ice. Like a little child Dudley hid under his seat and waited that the bombardment that now sounded like hailstorm on a car roof, with the occasional noise of metal that get smashed, would end.

And as fast as it has begun it ended and a deceptive silence rose. A silence which made Dudley leave his hiding place and be inattentive for just one second. This one second was more than enough time for another bullet to pierce through the iron skin of the ship and hit the left hand of its internal organ called Dudley Puppy.

It wasn´t the pain what he felt first, more a feeling of confusion and a shock. But the pain followed fast and forced Dudley to do something. The medical protocol intended that he had to disinfect the wound and bandage it. But there was no medical materials on board, so the second part of the medical protocol become operative.

"Dammit… but at least I don´t have a problem with the hull." The optimist in him thought about Keswick who once said that the hull was able to seal itself so that at least the air stayed in the ship, even if the astronaut is dead. Dudley could remember that he and Keswick had a debate after that why he hadn´t built the hull out of a stronger material.

Keswick ended the whole conversation with this ugly word. "Budget shortenings." Something that he heard too often in the time when he worked with the NASA. He saw broken equipment, dilapidated buildings and technology which was clearly out of date.

And always when he tried to speak with someone about these things he always heard these ugly words. It seemed that there was no more money left for flying to the stars. The peoples gazes were on the ground and no longer in the sky.

Dudley thought about that while he was searching for a piece of metal that would fit into his wound. He thought about that he not only fulfill his own dream but was maybe also be a role model for those who were still dreaming. The nasty words he threw on Miss Petropolis´s and Eric´s heads in the show hurt him now a bit. Which role model does or says something like that? Just the worst.

Finally after searching a while Dudley found a metal bolt that was perfect for what he wanted to do, the only thing he needed now was a heat source. Hadn´t this pale assistant said that the reactor sometimes overheating? Or was it Keswick who told him that?

No matter who said it, it was the only thing that could heat up the metal so much that he could use it. Dudley lost no time, he pushed himself off the ground and floated like superman the whole way to the reactor. As he entered the reactor room he could feel that something wasn´t right there.

The room was too hot, it seemed that the thing had already overheated. Maybe one of the asteroids hit the something what cause a malfunction in this thing. Dudley looked worried at the little gauge which showed the core temperature.

"Okay… yellow. That´s better than red but worse than green." Dudley mumbled a bit worried. He couldn´t think to long about the consequences of that because the pain in his hand reminded him of things that were more important now. He laid the piece of metal on the surface of the reactor and had not to wait too long until it glowed red.

For a short moment he eyed the metal respectful until he screamed "HIGEEGEE" and rammed it into the wound. His flesh hissed like a steak which was thrown into a pan filled with boiling oil. A terrible burn conquered his whole arm and the pain almost let him faint. But the smell of the evaporated blood somehow kept him awake like smelling salt. But the pain distorted his senses.

In a delirium Dudley floated back to the cockpit. It took him a while to get himself back to order. And as he saw everything clear again he decided to give a status report to mission control so he could plan the next steps with them.

"Mission control…" called Dudley weak into the microphone. "… I had a few problems here. I could need a little help. OVER." The only answer Dudley received was static noise. Again he repeated his message but the static noise continued.

"What´s wrong with this thing?!" hissed Dudley in the micro, it´s clear that he also received no answer for that.  
These four things, the asteroids, the almost overheating reactor, his injury and the lack of communication were enough to call this mission as a fail. Actually it was planned that Dudley would orbit one time around the sun of Therak3 what would have took 36 hours but wouldn´t do this without the guidance of mission control.

So he decided for the only step that seemed logical to him in that moment. So he typed some commands into the computer and set the coordinates back home. The last thing he had to do was activating the Möbius Mk II which he set to full power. He wanted to get home fast.

With a firm push on the button he activated the drive but instead letting the stars melt to lines of lights something else happened. The ship began to vibrate for a short time then a loud bang was audible from the back of the shuttle.

And this sounded not good. Confused and startled he made his way to the back of his ship just to see that the drive that should take him home was shattered into thousands of pieces that either hovering around in the room or stuck in the wall.

Until he saw this Dudley believed the whole time that he could bring this to a good end, that he figuratively turn the ship around. But now as his only way to get home exploded, his hope died. And he began to panic because of that. Hyperventilating he rushed to a little window on the side of the ship and beat with his fist against it.

"LET ME OUT! I WANT TO GO HOME! LET ME HO… WHAT THE…?" Dudley now saw something that ultimately let every hope vanish in him. If there was something left after the Möbius was destroyed, it was gone by now. There was something dark and dangerous that slowly began to pull the ship towards it.

Dudley had an idea that was but just from scifi stories. A big black thing that eats all the light around it and began to pull things into it. That must be a black hole. He floated back to the cockpit fast and started the conventional engine to not get pulled into the hole. It would be easy to get out of the gravitational pull now but what would be the alternative?

He had a black hole in his back but almost one light year way towards home in front of him. If he would choose running away from the singularity it would take him not only a while to get home. He would need a lot of time to get home and he hadn´t had the supplies to survive it. So he could choose between dying in a few minutes or starving over a few days.

Dudley leaned back exhausted in his seat and closed his eyes. He needed a little break now. "What a crappy day." He sighed and tried to sleep a bit. It was just an unrestful semi-sleep that visited him. Dudley began to think about the whole situation. "I´m so far away from home… Maybe further than every other one before…"

**-Well, I think we know now what happened and why Dudley is in this hopeless situation. Hope you liked that chapter. So, leave me a review and stay tuned.-**


	7. A drop of blood in the water

"She´s in the building!" shouted Bill with relief and tore the astronaut out of his depressive silence.  
"Really?" Dudley seemed almost happy as he heard the news but the next words came a bit fearful over his lips. "How much time do I have left?"

"Five minutes and 34 seconds until you cross the Schwarzschild radius and then ten more until you cross the event horizon."  
"Five minutes…" mumbled Dudley and drifted away into his thoughts. He just had five minutes left of his life.

Usually you would expect that if someone tells you that you have just a certain amount of time left that it would be a year or at least a month. At least so much time that you can say goodbye to everyone you know. But this time was taken away from him.

Stolen, by no one else than himself. And what remained was a shabby rest of the life he could have had. He could have cried about the cruelness life showed him for this one little mistake. Weren´t his motives of a pure nature? Following his dreams. What was so wrong about following a dream that something, let it be god or anything else, considers that he should get punished for that?

Dudley thought for a short moment about the people down there in the base that looked spell bounded at the monitors while they were worrying about him. Maybe it wasn´t his motive but his will to sacrifice the wonderful life he had just for his own egoistic goals.

No guts, no glory. That´s just something people say who haven´t realized that there was always something on the stack for them. That there´s always something what they wouldn´t sacrifice even if they could reach everything. Such a person was, is and soon will no longer be Dudley. It was a bit late now to realize that.

But better you realize something important in the last five minutes of your life than never. So Dudley sat there and waited to hear Kitty´s voice while he thought about what he should say to her. A fear heavy like lead spread in his chest as he understood that he would say his last words to Kitty. The fear never to see her again, never to touch her again, never to love her again.

Wherever death would lead him, it was a way he would have to go alone. Also melancholy flooded his heart as he thought about the times they could have shared. All these events that would now never happen. Their wedding, how they moved out of Kitty´s apartment and into a big house, the birth of their children.  
What was left were these last five minutes. He had to make them count.

Totally perplex stepped Kitty into the room in which everybody was now looking at her. Her confusion was reasonable if you visualize that she, similar to Keswick, also just received a call from a confused technician. Questioning what´s going on she looked into the circle of worried faces around her.

For a short moment they just nodded at her in silent until Keswick said. "We´re sorry." Like these words were the password the circle yield and gave her space to step in front of the big screen which she had somehow ignored skillfully.  
The sight of her hurt fiancée made her breath stop and constricted her throat so severe that only a fearful. "Dudley…" could pass her lips.

"Hey Kitty" replied Dudley weak but happy.  
"Dudley." She repeated shocked again. "What… what happened."  
"Well, where should I start…"

"Four minutes left commander." Called Bill in with a worried gaze on the clock.  
"Oh, okay. To make that short, asteroids, an overheated drive which exploded later by converting the sun of Therak3 to a black hole which is now pulling me towards it."  
"Black hole? What do you mean Dudley?" asked Kitty confused.

"I mean that my time is over." Meant Dudley softly.  
"But how is that possible?!" Kitty´s whole body began to shiver in fear.  
"I don´t know but it happens. And I can´t do anything about it."

Kitty stood for a while just there and you could read it in her face that she tried to comprehend the message that impacted on her. "But…" she began to stammer. Her brain tried to resist against that what Dudley said about his imminent death by thinking about anything she could do to safe him.

"What if I take the old shuttle and start a rescue mission? I could start in a few hours and…"  
"Kitty." Interrupted Dudley so calm that it was somehow creepy. "There is no use. In the time you weren´t there we already had such a discussion. It´s useless. We have to face the truth, darling. It´s over. We should…"

"NO IT ISN´T OVER." Cried Kitty while tears began to form in her eyes. "IT CAN´T BE OVER! IT HAS JUST BEGUN!"  
"I know Kitty." meant Dudley with his head hung down.  
"WE WANTED TO HAVE A FAMILY! WE WANTED TO MARRY! WE WANTED TO GROW OLD TOGETHER!" she shouted at the screen in anger.

"I´m sorry… so sorry. I broke my promise. I´ll never have the chance to marry you, I´ll never have the chance to move with you in a big house and never have the chance to make a bunch of sweet kids with you. And I want you to know that I regret it to be her and not at your side. And that I love you."  
Kitty winced at hearing the word kids.

Everyone around her realized that of course, the only one who couldn´t see that was Dudley. He had just audio connection. Forced by the expectant looks of everyone around her and the wish to clear things up Kitty began her next words not crying in anger but speaking calmly and almost embarrassed. "Dudley, there is something I have to tell you."

"Tell me?" From its lower position Dudley´s head wandered upwards and looked interested but confused into the camera.  
"I was just at the hospital as they called me here to get checked."  
"Yeah, you felt ill the last days. By the way, what… no."

"Yes" said Kitty and again tears flooded her eyes. "You´re going to be a father."  
"I..I.." Dudley´s jaw dropped almost on the control panel in front of him. That was much more than his mind could take in this moment.

He´s going to be father? Now? In this moment which was the worst moment in his life to become a father. If Kitty just told him that earlier he had never gone on this trip. He would have stayed home with her and helped to raise his child. He had given up this dream and took care of his family without looking back.

It was just a dream, even if it was an old one. Dreams come and go but reality stays. And it seemed that Dudley somehow lost sight of what was real and what was a dream. It all became one obscure grey mass for him.

"Kitty, we´re going to be parents." He mumbled still shocked into the camera.  
"I know." She said with a cracking voice.  
"One minute left!" sighed Bill sadly.

"Okay, okay." Said Dudley and tried to put his thoughts into order for his last words. "Kitty. I love you, I will always love you no matter if I´m dead or not. I just want you to be happy…"  
"NO!" screamed Kitty but Dudley just continued with his speech.

"… go on with your life. You will be sad for a while, that´s normal and that´s okay, but you have to move on then." The next words hurt him but he said them for her happiness. "You´ll find someone new. Someone who loves and a father for the kid. Someone better than me, someone who keeps his promises."

"I don´t want someone else! I want you." Kitty stepped closer to screen and laid her hand on it. Somehow Dudley noticed that and laid one of his fingers on the lens of the camera. "I… Love…" the connection began to break-off and the last word that got through the static voice was "Kitty". Then it was over.

"No! Dudley NO!" screamed Kitty and beat at the monitor until the glass shattered. "NO NO NO!" Again and again her fist hit the surface of the monitor and even if the blood already dropped from her ill-treated hand. The others didn´t dare to stop her from that. It would make matters worse if they would stop her, also nobody knew how Kitty would react if she got pulled away from this screen. No, she should first let this strange anger off.

"WHY DID THE SIGNAL BROKE OFF!" screamed Peg instead of hindering Kitty at Bill while looking at her watch. She watched the time closely and there should be about 30 seconds left. Bill gazed on the other hand at Keswick who was the inventor of the Kcom-8, if someone knows what´s wrong it would be he.

"Well…" began Keswick scratching the back of his head. "The u..u..unbelievable energy and the hurling matter around the singularity could m..m..maybe result in an emission of Tachyons…"  
"Tachyons?!" wondered Bill loudly about Keswick´s idea. "Nonsense, these things are theoretical constructs."

"I can´t i..i..imagine anything else what is possible!" he suddenly shouted back at Bill. "So if you don´t have a..a..another idea, shut your ill-informed mouth!"  
"How did you just call me?!" Bill who was like Keswick also not blessed with much muscles but using the advantage that he was almost twice as big as Keswick, built himself angry up in front of the small T.U.F.F. scientist.

"HEY! BOTH OF YOU, STOP IT!" Peg intervened half sobbing half screaming into the fight between Keswick and Bill. "We need to do something! We have…"  
"Aww... c..c..come on" Sighed Keswick annoyed and aggressively. "It´s over, Mrs. Puppy! The only thing we can do now is clean up the m..m..mess he left. Go home and take Kitty with you! She needs s..s..some time for herself now. Got it?"

An open mouth was the only thing Peg replied to Keswick´s speech. She had never expected this aggressive behavior against her. After all they were all in the same boat somehow, they lost someone. And there was really no reason to behave like this.

"MRS. PUPPY, PLEASE G..G..GET KITTY OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Peg winced as she heard his voice which sounded now stern and imperative. She nodded, took Kitty by her hand and led her out of the room with the words. "Let´s go sweety… it seems they say it´s over."

Keswick hadn´t overlooked the last angry glance of Peg who had tears in her eyes. And as she left the room Keswick slumped down internally. He buried his face in his hands and sighed. There was a reason why he was so aggressive towards Peg and why he wanted them out of the room.

Exhausted he shuffled to the console where Bill and the other communication officers were and began to type some commands into the computer.  
"What are you doing?" asked Bill totally perplexed by Keswick´s behavior.

"There is a reason why I b..b..behaved like that. The Tachyon theory was nonsense like you realized it. It was just something that I told the o..o..others so they would leave and had not to witness the end."

"The end?" probed Bill confused.  
"Yes, I ordered the Kcom-8 to terminate the signal before they had to hear this." Keswick pushed a button and a recording began. Dudley was audible but not saying anything, there were just terrible screams of pain that echoed through the whole room. Screams like Bill had ever heard them.

Screams that let a cold shiver ran down his spine. Dudley´s loud death struggle became weaker and quieter the longer the recording lasted until… well until it was over and just silence was audible.  
"But… why…" stammered Bill after he got rid of this fear created by these screams, these terrible loud screams.

"Why I haven´t s..s..showed that to them? Isn´t that obvious? Peg is his m..m..mother and Kitty is pregnant with his kid. I don´t think they needed to hear that. I think no one s..s..should hear that. Even I c..c..creep out when I hear that. I mean… no… enough. I´m out." Keswick sighed again and then took the same way as Kitty and Peg.

Without saying goodbye to Bill or the rest of mission control. He went down a few hallways and through a backdoor he left the building. There he stepped not only into the warm night but also into a cloud of cigarette smoke produced by an orang-utan in a black suit with a black tie who smoked a cigarette there and looked up into the sky.

Keswick usually wasn´t a smoker but after what just happened and what he just heard he had the inner need to consume some drugs.  
"Excuse me Sir, c..c..can I have one?" Without deigning Keswick a look the guy handed him a cigarette and also lighted it up.

Keswick took a pull on it and let the hot acrid fill his lung. Well, as already mentioned, Keswick was no smoker it was more uncontrollably coughing than smocking with relish.  
"You are not doing that often, do you?" asked the guy.  
"No…" gasped Keswick. "But today I just n..n..need that. Especially after all of this…"

"Ah, so you have been part of the Hyperspace mission?"  
"Damn right…"  
"Hm… that was a pretty big fail." mentioned the guy.

"You can say that a..a..again." laughed Keswick sadly. "Oh god…"  
"So…what will you do now?"  
"Hm." Shrugged Keswick. "Finish this cigarette, drive home… maybe cry a while until it stops hurting."

A short break arose which was broken by the orang-utan in the suit. "Well, as you may realized it, I do that pretty often. Standing, starring and asking myself why? Was it my fault? Did my decisions lead to this point? Have I made a mistake? Mostly I made no mistake and my concerns dissolve like a drop of blood in a pool of water. But sometimes there are these rare decisions which are wrong which let me bleed to death and turn the water red."

"What do you m..m..mean?" Keswick was a bit rattled about that guy. He was somehow suspect but his words had something that he couldn´t name. Something that made him want to hear what he will say.

"You feel guilty, right? Guilty that you let Dudley go on this mission. Guilty that this happened. You were involved in developing this shuttle. You think that it is your fault that he died. And maybe it is somehow your fault, Keswick. Otherwise there was maybe no other way, maybe that had to happen and you could not prevent that."

"Maybe…" repeated Keswick pensively pulling at his cigarette.  
"Yeah, that is the question you will never get an answer from outside. You have to find your own answer. Or your guilt will rip a deep bleeding scar into you. And if you do not take care of this scar you will color the water red. And if the water is red there is no way back. So release yourself, Keswick. As long as the blood just drops slowly."

"I still d..d..don´t understand… wait from where do you know my name?"  
The guy averted his gaze from the stars and winked smirking at Keswick. "Expect the unexpectable. And predict the unpredictable… the universe is big and full of miracles." he flicked the cigarette stub into a trash can nearby and began to walk slowly away.

"Hey wait!" Called Keswick after him. "What do you m..m..mean with that?"  
"The big wound licking just begun, Mr. Keswick. You are the one who is harmed least of all casualties. Take care of the ones with the bigger scars. But do not forget yourself."

**-Well, that was "Space Oddity Episode I" I hope you, liked it and i hope you leave me a review if you like it ;) What I can say now, at the end, is that there will be a sequel to that, I mean I can´t let it end like that. So stay tuned for Episode II :D-**


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